The present invention relates to a method and a system as well as a catcher tire abutment device for restraining a road vehicle on a vehicle support surface of a transport vehicle and maintaining the transported road vehicle in a transport location when subjected to an impact force from either a front or rear direction.
References made to my earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,302,063 and 5,312,213 which relate to a wheel chuck which is securable to a grating, of a transport vehicle to prevent axial displacement and lateral shifting motion of a road vehicle being transported. With these wheel chucks it is pointed out that it is not necessary to strap any wheel or tie down the vehicle by the use of chains connected to steel runners in the support surface, such as the floor of a railway flatbed vehicle. With many prior art devices, tools are required in order to secure these chains or straps to restrain the transported vehicle The wheel chucking system as described in my above referenced patents can be installed very rapidly onto a grating floor of transport vehicles. However, if the transport vehicle, such as a railway flatbed vehicle is subjected to an abrupt stop or starts abruptly or is impacted by other flatbed during interconnection, the transported road vehicles are subjected to an impact force from either a front or a rear direction. Because the road vehicles are not tied down it is possible that if this impact force is large enough that the vehicle could be dislodged from its transport location between the chucks by jumping over a pair of these chucks facing the direction of impact.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a method and a system for restraining a road vehicle on a vehicle support surface of a transport vehicle by using primary wheel restraining devices i.e. the chucks of my above-referenced patents, and securing a catcher tire abutment device on an inward side of each tire of the front and rear pair of wheels of the road vehicle and sapced from its thread face.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide a catcher tire abutment device for use in combination with my aforementioned chuck system and wherein the catcher tire abutment device is secured to the flooring without the use of tools.
A further feature of the present invention is to provide a catcher tire abutment device as above-mentioned and which is lightweight, economical to produce and easy to install and remove from a flooring surface without the use of tools.
According to the above features, from a broad aspect the present invention provides a method of restraining a road vehicle on a vehicle support surface of a transport vehicle. The method comprises the steps of securing a primary wheel restraining device, having an arresting surface, to the support surface with the arresting surface thereof being adjacent a thread face of a tire of front and rear pairs of wheels of the road vehicle and on outward sides of the pairs of wheels thereby establishing a transport location of the road vehicle on the vehicle support surface between the four primary wheel restraining devices. The method also comprises securing a catcher tire abutment device, having an arresting surface, to the support surface with the arresting surface thereof spaced at an approximate predetermined distance adjacent the thread face on inward sides of each tire of the front and rear pairs of wheels. This method provides restraining the road vehicle in the transport location when the transported road vehicle is subjected to an impact force from either a front or rear direction by absorbing kinetic energy from the impacted transported vehicle sequentially by (a) contact of said tires of one of said front and rear pairs of wheels against the arresting surface of the primary wheel restraining device and (b) by the tires of the other pair of wheels contacting the arresting surface of the catcher tire abutment devices.
According to a still further broad aspect of the present invention when the tires of one of the front or rear pairs of wheels contact the arresting surface of the primary wheel restraining devices, the tires compress against the arresting surface whereby to absorb impact by deformation of the tires and wherein the arresting surface simultaneously cause the tires to move upward whereupon the weight of the road vehicle provides a downward restoring load to assist the road vehicle to return to the transport location when the arresting surface of the catcher tire abutment devices are contacted by the tires of the other pair of wheels. Accordingly, the shock is absorbed sequentially by delayed contact which includes time lapse provided by the road vehicle displacement, the tire deformation and the downward load buildup during upward movement of the tires on the arresting surface of the primary wheel restraining devices all of which provides for a soft dissipation of the kinetic energy of the road vehicle being displaced by an impact force.
According to a still further broad aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for restraining a road vehicle on a vehicle support surface of a transport vehicle. The system comprises providing, for each road vehicle, four primary wheel restraining devices having an arresting surface and securing means for attaching same to the vehicle support surface with the arresting surface positioned adjacent a thread face of a tire of front and rear pairs of wheels of the vehicle and on an outward side of the pairs of wheels thereby establishing a transport location of the road vehicle on the vehicle support surface between the four primary wheel restraining devices. The system also provides four catcher tire abutment devices also having an arresting surface and securing means for attaching same to the vehicle support surface an approximate predetermined distance adjacent the thread face on an inward side of each tire of the pairs of wheels. The approximate predetermined distance is calculated whereby the arresting surface of the catcher tire abutment device is contacted by the thread face of a pair of the wheels a predetermined time after a vehicle at the transport location has been subjected to an impact force to permit the arresting surface of the primary wheel restraining devices to be contacted first by the tires of the wheels of one of the front and rear pairs of wheels whereupon the tires compress against the arresting surface, to absorb impact by deformation of the tires, while causing the wheels of the vehicle to move upward whereby the weight of the road vehicle provides a downward restraining load to assist the road vehicle to return to the transport location when the arresting surface of the catcher tire abutment devices are contacted by the tires of the other pair of wheels.
According to a still further broad aspect of the present invention there is provided a catcher tire abutment device for use in a system for restraining road vehicles on a vehicle support surface of a transport vehicle. The catcher tire abutment device has a flat bottom wall and a rearwardly and upwardly extending arresting front surface. Securement arresting means project from the flat bottom wall and is adapted for release engagement with a vehicle support surface. A clamping means is spaced rearwardly of the flat bottom wall for engagement with the vehicle support surface. Means is also provided to engage and disengage the clamping means.